16 Jun Spiderhead Review

SPIDERHEAD

dir. Joseph Kosinski, starring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett

Two convicts living in a near-future society grapple with their pasts while trapped in a facility that allows prisoners to reduce their sentence time by volunteering for experiments using emotion-altering drugs, which are run by prison overseer Steve Abnesti (Hemsworth). Inmate Jeff (Teller) comes to care for another prisoner, Rachel (Smollett), and tries to outmaneuver the experiments of the prison to save her.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett, Spiderhead does no favors for any of these actors. With the exception of Hemsworth, who appears to be having the time of his life in this movie, Teller and Smollett, both accomplished actors, trudge along from scene to scene. While the relationship between the two is the narrative heart of the film, the chemistry is lacking, due mostly in part to the weak writing. With the least amount of work, Smollett is able to fully flex in one scene towards the film’s end. The rest of her appearances are with Teller, building the relationship between the two and with that aforementioned lack of chemistry, the full range and talents of the actress are mostly wasted.

Miles Teller doesn’t fare much better. Coming off a stellar performance earlier this year in Top Gun: Maverick, the actor is almost sleepwalking through his scenes here. His lackadaisical, almost uninterested performance causes the movie to suffer, and with Teller commanding the majority of the screentime as the audience’s eyes into this world, it makes for a rough watch. Conversely, Chris Hemsworth is hamming it up and charming his way through every scene he’s in. Delighting in playing the film’s antagonist, a role he doesn’t often get to portray, Hemsworth is almost full Roger Moore era Bond villain and to see the actor lean into the character as eagerly as he did was a delight to watch. Hemsworth’s performance, as well as Kosinski’s direction, are the only salvageable parts of the movie.

Director Joseph Kosinski is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. With some excellently framed and lit scenes, it’s apparent that his eye for arresting visuals initially established in 2010’s Tron: Legacy have continued to serve him well. Even in his films that have been less than stellar (Oblivion), Kosinski can’t be faulted for at least presenting dazzling imagery on the screen, and Spiderhead is no exception. Directing his way around the lackluster screenplay, the Top Gun: Maverick director manages to keep the viewer’s eye, even if their brain tends to wander to their phone from time to time. Cinematographer Claudio Miranda, who’s worked with Kosinski on every one of his projects thus far (as well as Fincher’s Benjamin Button), continues to make him name for himself in the world of DPs as the duo consistently prove throughout the movie that their combined talents far outpace the material they’re working from.

Overall, Spiderhead continues Netflix’s longstanding tradition of pumping out average or slightly above average films that are somewhat enjoyable in the moment and completely forgotten during the end credits. Somewhere in this movie lies a great examination of manipulation and using inmates for low wage labor, but the outcome is sadly an underdeveloped story with an underdeveloped antagonist. While Joseph Kosinski is putting as much juice as he can into it, and Chris Hemsworth appears to be having a blast, the weak screenplay from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick is the albatross hanging around the film’s neck. A decent movie best viewed on a weeknight if nothing else catches the fancy, the movie is just enough to keep the viewer’s attention for its 107 minute runtime. Spiderhead hits Netflix June 17th.

Review by Darryl Mansel